Saturday, January 15, 2011

For a while, Angry Paul Rand (later replaced by Nice Paul Rand) skewered the graphic design world. Many impostors' names acknowledge they are not the real person or institution, although others give no hint they aren't official, such as BP Public Relations. (I suppose it's obvious that almightygod isn't actually on Twitter.)

My current favorite is Fake AP Stylebook, using its 140-character bursts to point out the inconsistencies, foibles, and hypocrisies of journalism. Here are a few recent favorites:

It is actually illegal to do a story on technology trends without asking where flying cars are. (January 7)

Remember what happens when you assume: you save yourself a lot of work. (January 3)

Charities only ever do anything around Christmas, so limit coverage on them to mid-to-late December. (December 21)

A fact that is contrary to the misconceptions of the majority of your readers is "opinion," and should be avoided. (January 5)

You know, "yam" is one letter away from "yum." That ought to take care of most of the headlines in your Food section. (November 24)

Run stories about white people concerned about being overrun by illegal immigrants alongside kids' accounts of the first Thanksgiving. (November 22)

You can replace comic strips that are ending with strips created this century, or just run more ads for used cars. Your call. (November 17)

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Third of four daughters, raised in a rural area outside of a small town. Now living in a moderately large city, making media and immersed in other people's media. Finally cleaning out the filing cabinet and loading its contents to the cloud.